Almost 60 years back, the Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “The medium is the message” to focus attention on the character, not just the content, of a medium. And he spoke of this when television was barely born and the internet was just about a germ of a thought, at best. In short, the media were not quite as comp…

As we reflect upon MNC after MNC and how they’ve gone about their journeys in India, the three things that strike you immediately are: they play it safe, they prioritize testing the waters profitably from Day 1 over making a long-term commitment with lesser profitability in the early years, and they come with a “this is what we have, take it or lea…

Regardless of how progressive or woke an organization is, employees always start from a position of disadvantage, negotiating their way to a better place—either individually or collectively, formally or informally. That’s the norm we storm in this episode of our podcast. Listen in as Narayan & Anisha get chatting with a talented duo Aditiya & Gauta…

“The start-up economy today is only about moving money, not value creation.” This is the provocative norm we posed to veteran Fund Managing Partner,VT Bharadwaj, partner, A 91 Ventures & we began the discussion with something like this..venture capital firms basically mop up money from various sources – individuals and institutions, pension funds a…

In a world that’s all about the Web3 bubble, there’s no place for chewing gum bubbles. Now, that’s a big and provocative norm to challenge about a category—and about large FMCG companies—that have built not just big customer bases for themselves but I daresay, also responsible for creating the kind of unparalleled mom-and-pop retail footprint in In…

Can we separate cryptocurrencies from blockchains? Are coins a necessary part of securing a public blockchain? There is a widespread public perception that exists that blockchain technology is worthwhile, but cryptocurrencies are not. You hear this decree all the time and with the regulatory overhang, it's only increasing by the day. With some blis…

First time ever in India, a podcast from one of world’s best blockchain & token economic specialist from Israel, Mr. Jonathan Caras telling us how can an algorithm—a structured set of instructions encoded to enable repeatable tasks with the same consistent result every time—create or replace a phenomenon like trust? Trust which is a function of 3 h…

The Covid-19 crisis exposed stark differences in the fortunes of different small and medium-sized businesses. Larger businesses did have an edge & were less hard-hit as a group. These were the ones who were able to take some knocks, bounce back, restart, adapt better than others.”. But we also know that the world at large & we don’t just mean the w…

A picture speaks a thousand words. Indeed. But it is what you hear orally that stays with you for time immemorial. Even before video or the written word was a thing, we have evolved for millennia as oral cultures. And yet, when you look at it from a business point of view (myopic as that may sound, but hey we’re a business podcast) audio has always…

Is it easier for startups than for established businesses to turn around? Just think about it..mature organisations have established not just a business, but a certain reputation, ways of working, people policies, they’ve figured out ways around the corridors of power as well as versus competition, the company is like a machine (whether well-oiled …

Creativity needs chaos. Structure constrains lateral thinking. And so, many professions have no option but to think inside the box. Or do they? The “creative professions,” such as advertising, art, music, entertainment, writing believe they have the corner on creativity, relegating many professions to the doom and gloom of Boring. Is it their ego t…

Has it become an acceptable norm to prioritise valuation over value creation when running a start-up? If yes, why is this trend embraced like the holy grail? With this borderline trend fast becoming the norm, it’s the right time to find out what gives start-ups the confidence to not bother about profitability in their first few years and what makes…

As the world faces multiple crisis, there is an increasing need for corporates to come together and help the civil society. It is equally important to partner with leaders and ensure to bridge the gaps wherever necessary. Our norm this episode is set in this context: Can laws turn corporates into better partners for the society at large? Or will th…

This norm—that the future belongs to the fast—feels as old as time itself. Aesop articulated it with the fable of the hare and the tortoise. Pioneers throughout time became rulers by being the first to get somewhere, or to conquer new lands. In business, we’ve had the idea of the first-mover advantage for a long time. And in a frenzied, VC-fueled n…

In August 2020, this story about the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras went viral and made many a LinkedIn profile get their 15 seconds of fame. Funnily enough, the bridge was built in 1996, Hurricane Mitch forced the river to change course in 1998 to completely render the bridge useless from the point of its original purpose. But it took a year-long pa…

This norm may sound pretty obvious—and familiar, because it is an inescapable one these days, given the socio-political climate, not just in India but in many countries across the world. Recall the Donald Trump’s MAGA ideology that almost demanded a nationalistic fervor from business (the integrity of that ideology is another debate altogether), Br…

What are the rules of winning for challenger brands? But first, what makes a challenger brand? What differentiates them from market followers & qualifies them as challengers?Let's take a cricket analogy here. The 1983 men’s Indian cricket team was an underdog that came from nowhere to dethrone an invincible West Indies. But there is another more ap…

What really makes for a great board? The turn of the century saw the collapse of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia, 2008 saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers. They all had boards with great experience, diversity, equity involvement, independence, and they all oversaw governance as well as strategy. Closer home, we’ve seen the tussles in the past few y…

The irony of this norm is that it’s staring at us, but that change seems to be so long in coming, when the norm has been actually crying out to be stormed!! The traditional media industry may not acknowledge it, but as Einstein once said, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity…and not in a g…

At a time when the Indian Government is ruthlessly banning Chinese apps and pushing the Indian Start-up eco-system to raise their game, the question really is, "Are we ready to take the challenge"? It's well known that most Indian startups are prone to emulate successful global ideas, by and large fine-tuning an existing model to serve local needs.…

Indian executives have always succeeded spectacularly on the global stage. Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Ajay Banga, Indra Nooyi, Rajesh Suri, Shantanu Narayen, Rakesh Kapoor... The list is long. And yet, we'd be hard put to name even 5 Indian businesses that have similarly succeeded on a global scale. Why is that? What will it take for Indian bran…

COVID 19 has exposed the vulnerabilities of rigid supply chains and has heightened the need to circumvent existing supply chain limitations, cut the cost and time to reach customers, and figure out ways to generate more value—for customers and for themselves. Multi-channel distribution eco-system, ‘just-in-time’ delivery, customer’s expectation of …

Business plans have always been created for Growth. We all know that the single biggest lynchpin of progress—whether after crises or in regular times, whether in the world at large or in the world of business—is the pursuit of growth. Right now, obviously we’re seeing the opposite of growth and this is the right time to pause & reflect on our norm …

Everywhere around us, the world is in turmoil. And perhaps the answer to still this turmoil is not at a global or even at a collective level, but at an individual level. What does it take to succeed in a disruptive world? We will explore it at an individual level and not just at a business level. The norm—and it seems so true intuitively as well as…

How do you define form and function? Are they synonymous with style and substance? Do they change based on individual characteristics and contexts (of people and businesses)? Do they vary based on mediums of expression? Do they change over time? Is form only about expression? Is function only about utility? In this episode of Storm The Norm, Anisha…

This norm is going to sound very basic, very simplistic even, but there’s a very profound truth underneath—one that is the unquestioned norm, or at least, has been so far. We are talking about the ownership of cars. Especially in a country like India, it’s both the norm and the aspiration, isn’t it? It’s why the car industry is a bellwether for the…

Think about it. Business & Politics have kind of been on opposite sides on many counts. • Politics is right-brained/ emotional & business is left-brained and factual. • Politics is raw and rough. Business is structured and organized. • Politics is ideology-based & business is ideology-agnostic. But increasingly, business and politics can’t seem to …

I am sure there was a lot to absorb from what Ashish Bhasin said about ‘How do you become a successful entrepreneurial professional?’ But, Ashish is a bit of an exception. What’s a little rarer are successful professional CEOs who make entrepreneurs. Not long-standing corporate leaders who are entrepreneurial in a monolithic organization but those …

There are those of us who, even as kids, would see a puddle and jump into it. Or see a red button and press it to see what would happen. And then there are those of us who wait to see what happens when that other kid presses the red button and then decide what's the prudent thing to do & that's the defining trait that continues to separate grown-up…

Powerful Innovation is rarely a random idea that emanates from a casual brainstorming session or a bright spark in the middle of the night. If you don't understand the difference between ideas and innovation, it is unlikely that your idea will end up with a transformative innovation aimed at solving a real problem. Just follow the 5 #STN Fundas to …

In part one of this episode, we had highlighted the 3 A’s—ambiguity, agony and apathy as three key levers. The questions to ask is: from ambiguity to what? From agony to what? From apathy to what? The answers seem fairly obvious when we ask the questions. From ambiguity to clarity. From agony to ecstasy. From apathy to empathy. The overarching ques…

In this episode, we take up a very fundamental question: What is the most fertile source of innovation? The norm is that innovation comes from the edges of what is known, from the outliers. In exploring how to storm this norm, we roped in Santosh Desai, cultural expert, social commentator, brand and business builder and a thought-provoking person (…

That’s the common perception, isn’t it? That family run businesses benefit family members with superior incentives and lesser hindrances, and so it’s easier for them. Let me add a key statistic here about why this is an important norm to storm for anyone in business: By one estimate, 90% of all businesses in India are family-run businesses, from th…

Anti-incumbency is an unstoppable mega forceBy Anisha Motwani

If you are too big to fail, you are too big to disrupt. What does it take to rewire for success in a disruptive world? Why Storm the Norm in the first place? What’s wrong with the norm? And is there any formula to Storming the Norm? These are the questions Narayan Devanathan & I will explore and explode in our brand new fortnightly podcast series, …